Doctoral Dissertation Research: From Almaty to Astana: Authoritarianism, Nationalism, and Kazakhstan's Capital Change

该项目研究了哈萨克斯坦的国家战略以及流行和精英地缘政治文化的性质。它突出了国家项目的争议性质，以促进哈萨克斯坦民族认同的特定愿景。研究的核心问题是：如何利用国家迁都阿斯塔纳的决定来促进特定的“哈萨克斯坦”身份？哈萨克斯坦人民是如何理解这一点的？在回答这些问题时，本研究将采用定量和定性方法，包括全国范围的调查（1，500名受访者），文本分析，焦点小组和访谈。此外，该研究项目将探讨哈萨克斯坦公民积极参与国家身份项目解释的方式。研究人员还将阐明哈萨克斯坦的身份认同和多重表达。首都城市的变化被用来作为一个焦点，了解人口的表达他们的身份和他们的地缘政治想象力。拟议研究的结果将有助于通过将理论和方法论方法与目前正在经历重大政治变革的地区的民族主义调查联系起来来推进知识。该项目在很大程度上借鉴了区域研究的传统，突出了深刻的区域知识的核心地位，以产生理论和实证实地研究地理。此外，哈萨克斯坦是这项研究的一个重要地点，因为中亚是地理学科中一个特别被忽视的地区。虽然哈萨克斯坦只有1 600万人口，领土面积为270万平方公里，但其战略意义不容低估，因为该国拥有大量石油和天然气储量，是世界上主要的铀矿生产国之一。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。该项目由NSF地理和空间科学计划和NSF国际科学与工程办公室共同支持。

This project examines state strategies and the nature of popular and elite geopolitical culture in Kazakhstan. It highlights the contested nature of the state project to promote a particular vision of national identity in Kazakhstan. The central research questions are: How has the state decision to move the capital to Astana been used to promote a particular "Kazakhstani" identity? And how has this been interpreted by the people of Kazakhstan? In answering these questions, this study will employ both quantitative and qualitative methods, including a country-wide survey (of 1,500 respondents), textual analysis, focus groups, and interviews. Furthermore, the research project will explore the ways in which the citizens of Kazakhstan have actively engaged in the interpretation of the state's identity project. The researcher will also shed light on contestations and multiple articulations of identity in Kazakhstan. The capital city change is used as a focal point for understanding the population's articulations of their identity and their geopolitical imaginations. The findings of the proposed research will contribute to advancing knowledge by linking theoretical and methodological approaches to the investigation of nationalism of a region currently undergoing significant political changes. The project draws heavily on the regional studies tradition, highlighting the centrality of deep regional knowledge to the generation of theory and empirical field research in geography. Furthermore, Kazakhstan is an important site for this study because Central Asia is a particularly neglected region within the discipline of geography. Although Kazakhstan has a small population of 16 million people with a territorial size of 2.7 million sq km, its strategic significance cannot be underestimated given that the country is home to vast oil and gas reserves and is one of the world's leading producers of uranium ore. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. This project is jointly supported by the NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.